Method and apparatus for stenciling



March 14, 1944. J .M1G| ARE$E Mmaon AND APPARATUS FOR STENCILING Filed April 7, 1941 Patented Mar. 14, 1944 UNITED STATES, PATE T. FFIC'E.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR STENCILING John Miglarese, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to The National Marking Machine Company, Cincinnati, Oh-io', a corporation of Ohio 7 Application April'7, 1941, Serial No. 387,238

' 3 Claims. (c1.1o 1 ,-127) {In thejmanufacture of articles such, for instance, as apparel shoes, it is the presentcustom to indicate upon the various pieces of leather entering into the making of a shoe, visible indicating marks along the lines to be followed by the sewing machine operators. For this purpose fit is the present practice to provide a thin sheet of fiber board, draw the desired outline upon it, then cut by hand, slots through the fiber board along the outline, thenplace the stencil thus if ormedupon the pieces of leather, and then 'mark the leather by the use of a fountain pen guided by the slots and containing a white ink. Ifhe' object of myinvention is to provide a "method and apparatus for stenciling in which 'thelabor and expense of originally construct- Iing the stencil plate is greatly reduced.

A further object is to provide an improved method of applying the marking ink to the stencil, and through it to the article to be marked, much more rapidly and easily than can be done with the method now in use.

A further object is to provide a method and apparatus for this purpose in which the resultant markings upon the articles will be in the form of a row of small dots formed of an ink which will not be removed by friction during the ordinary operations of sewing such articles together, but which markings after being sewn together may be easily removed without injury to the glazed surfaces of leather to which it has been applied.

A further object is to provide a method and apparatus for stenciling in which the marking ink may be readily and quickly applied to large surfaces and the amount of ink delivered to the article through each perforation in the stencil sheet be so limited and controlled as to avoid smearing the ink over large areas of the article and thereby impairing the accuracy of the marked design on the article.

In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 shows a plan view of a stencil sheet having a design marked thereon;

Figure 2 shows a plan view of a portion of an article having a completed stencil marking thereon;

Figure 3 shows an enlarged sectional view of a part of a sewing machine needle having a thread therein and in position extended through a thin metal stencil plate and illustrating the hole made by the needle and the burr formed by the needle on the under surface of the stencil plate; and

Figure 4 shows an enlarged detail sectional view of a portion of a stencil plate showing the needle thread looped through the openings in the stencil plate and the bobbin thread extended through the loops on the under side of the stencil plate.

Thestencil plate In is formed of thin flexible "metal. I have attained satisfactory results with sheet aluminum 0.005 inch thick.

The design II, which is to be reproduced by stenciling is marked upon the surface of the plate in any ordinary way. 1

The stencil plate thus marked is placed upon an ordinary sewing machine having a threaded needle anda threaded bobbin, and the sewing machine is operated in the ordinary manner, the operator following the pattern outlined upon the stencil plate. v

When the' needle '12 penetrates the stencil plate it will punch a substantially round opening I3 and form a burr l4 extended downwardly from the stencil plate. The thread I5 passed through the eye of the needle forms loops I6 extended through the openings, and the thread I! from the bobbin extends through these loops. The looped portions of the thread pass around the lower portion of the bobbin thread, and when the stencil thus formed is placed on an article to be marked, it is only the lower under surfaces of the loops and the adjacent straight portions of the bobbin thread which are pressed against the article, thereby forming a stencil marking upon the article, as shown in Fig. 2, in which l8 indicates the article and [9 the stencil marking thereon. The openings l3 are substantially larger than the diameter of the thread passed through them.

My improved method of using the stencil is as follows:

The stencil is placed upon the article to be marked, and a thin viscous fluid ink is applied to the entire top surface of the stencil. A satisfactory ink for this purpose is made under the following formula:

Parts Water Titanium oxide pigment 10 Polyvinyl alcohol 1 Butyl Cellosolve 3 Bentonite 1 The thread preferably used is ordinary cotton thread which conducts the ink by capillary action in the manner of a wick.

I preferably saturate a cloth with the ink and rub it over the stencil, and at the same time press the stencil firmly against the article being' During the handling of the marked articles,

and during the sewing operations thereis a tendency to remove the ink dots due to friction. I have demonstrated that with the ink described, a sufficient amount of the ink remains after such handling and friction to provide an accurate guide for the sewing operation.

After the sewing operation it is desirable to remove from the finished article all visible traces of the ink, and I have demonstrated that with the ink described, such traces may be readily and easily removed with a wet sponge or the like, without any injury to the surface of the marked article. 7

I claim as my invention: 1. The method of stencil marking articles, which consists in providing a thin flexible metal stencil plate, then forming a stencil pattern thereon with a sewing machine having a needle and thread, and thereby punching openings in the stencil plate and extending looped threads through the openings and below the stencil plate, and at the same time extending a bobbin thread through the loops on the under side of the stencil plate, and whereby the openings formed by the needle are substantially larger than the diameter of the thread passed through them, saturating a pad with a thin viscous marking ink and rubbing ,said pad over the stencil plate and at the same time pressing it against the stencil plate and thereby forcing up ink through the openings and around the threads therein and upon the bobbin thread below the plate, and at the same time forcing each part of the flexible stencil plate against the article to be marked as the pad is rubbed over it and pressed against it.

2. The method of stencil marking articles which consists in providing. a thin stencil plate, impermeable to the ink used, then forming a stencil pattern therein with a sewing machine having a needle, a needle thread and a bobbin thread, said needle punching openings in said plate and extending needle thread loops through the openings and below the stencil plate, and the bobbin thread being carried through said loops on the under side of the stencil plate, saturating a pad with a fluid marking ink and rubbing said pad over the upper side of the stencil plate, at the same time pressing it against the upper side of the stencil plate, thereby forcing ink from the upper side of the plate through said openings into the needle thread loops and the bobbin thread on the under side of said plate, and at the same time pressing the under side of said plate against the article to be marked.

3. An apparatus for stenciling comprising a thin plate, impermeable to the marking ink and thin enough to be perforated by a sewing machine needle, said plate having a series of openings needle punched therein, and a two-thread stitching formed on saidplate and including a needle thread onthe upper surface of the plate and extended in loops through said-openings and a bobbin thread on the under surface of the plate and extended through said loops, the mark to be stenciled being outlined on the under surface of the plate by said bobbin thread and the tips of said loops.

JOHN MIG-LARESE. 

